Word should be banned

Editor’s Note:

TIME apologizes for the execution of this poll; the word ‘feminist’ should not have been included in a list of words to ban. While we meant to invite debate about some ways the word was used this year, that nuance was lost, and we regret that its inclusion has become a distraction from the important debate over equality and justice.

–Nancy Gibbs

If you hear that word one more time, you will definitely cringe. You may exhale pointedly. And you might even seek out the nearest the pair of chopsticks and thrust them through your own eardrums like straws through plastic lids. What word is this? You tell us.

For TIME’s fourth annual word banishment poll, we’re asking readers to vote another word off the island, following previous castoffs OMG, YOLO and twerk. Cast your vote, encourage your friends to share their curmudgeonly angst and we’ll announce the results next week on Nov. 19.

If you need help deciding (or a little background on the words), see our blurbs below the poll, in which we’ve channeled the type of person who would like to see each nominee launched into the deepest, darkest, most hopeless eternity from whence there is no salvation nor return.

bae: Yes, this term of endearment has been around for years, but suddenly it’s everywhere. You can’t turn around without encountering someone’s bae or some bae meal or some bae bae. The cool factor is being smothered. It’s time to start using something Chick-Fil-A managers have never heard of.

basic: You get it. Girls need a word for other girls who name-drop D-listers in their fake Louboutins, going around thinking they’re a Carrie, even though they’re really a Miranda — if Miranda had a less remarkable hair color and worked at TJ Maxx. But basic has become basic. Bad bitches can do better.

bossy: You are leaning in all over the place. If Sheryl wants a word banned, then we best get banning.

disrupt: Silicon Valley types may be changing sleepy industries, but this word is more worn out than startup names that sound and look like six-year-olds came up with them. You just might strangle the next “disrupt0r” you meet with his hoodie drawstrings.

feminist: You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade.

I can’t even: … finish a sentence, apparently. Nobody is this speechless.

influencer: This kind of business jargon makes you want to pivot yourself into a gorge. Stop throwing trumped up labels on people with a bunch of Twitter followers or five friends who might sign up for something if they do.

kale: You haven’t been so tired of having a single thing talked about and trumpeted and pushed in your face since people started signing up for Twitter. You even saw kids selling dried kale chips on the street the other day instead of running a lemonade stand. Kale chips, people! This is America!

literally: You continue to hate it when people use literally to mean figuratively, even if the word just won’t be separated from that usage. The least you can do is cast a vote against everyone who has ever “literally” lost their mind, because they are metaphorically driving you bananas.

om nom nom nom: If people could stop posting pictures of their brunches like their fancy toast slices were newborn babies, then maybe you would be spared this overdone onomatopoeia. You get it. Food is delicious. Restaurants serve bacon. Moving on.

obvi: You hate this particular unnecessary, cloying word-shortening about as much as you hate perf, whatevs, adorbs, natch, totes and amaze (when used in place of amazing). If truncation is cool, then you’d like to buy a ticket to the hottest place on earth, please.

said no one ever: “A joke like this stays fresh no matter how many times you hear it,” said no one ever.

sorry not sorry: #sorrynotsorryyoureoverthisnonapology

turnt: Parents in Middle America may still be struggling to understand what this word means, but everybody else knows all too well — including writers at SNL, who portrayed the state of being turnt as a remedy to an unsatisfying sex life. It’s time for turnt to turn down.

yaaasssss: Nooooooooo mmooooorrrreeeeee. If only for poor Lady Gaga’s sake.

This is an edition of Wednesday Words, a feature on language. For the previous post, click here.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

We all have a watershed word – the word that tells us it’s all over, that the internet has won, and our youth is gone for ever. For me, it was Yolo, or You Only Live Once. It was born, I used it, and rooms fell eerily silent as soon as it left my mouth. Yolo belonged to the others, the younger people; it carbon-dated me and I was envious.

You might call it snobbery but, for me, every delicious new bit of slang reminds me I’m being left behind, along with VHS cassettes, legwarmers and Lady Gaga. Susie Dent, Countdown’s resident lexicographer, tells me I should lighten up. “Slang has always moved this way,” she says. “From Cockney rhyming slang to codes swapped among highwaymen, they’re tribal badges of identity, bonding mechanisms designed to distinguish the initiated, and to keep strangers out.” The linguist and author David Crystal agrees: “Remember the old maxim – the chief use of slang is to show you’re one of the gang.”

Fine: I’m not one of the gang. But surely even the experts would admit there are some words that urgently need to be retired, or at least restricted to people under 25? “If a term becomes too popular, its irritant value is ramped up,” Dent agrees. “The impulse is then to replace it with something else.”

This, then, is my highly subjective glossary of words that should be binned in 2017 – the most annoying, the most misused, the most broken. Is one of these your “Yolo”? It’s a hotly contested field.

Because internet

“A lot of purists hate this one, but I think it’s quite inventive and useful as a shortcut,” Susie Dent says. The main issue here is a fake sense of guilt. We’re allowed to enjoy cat gifs, videos of people falling over and animations of a horse playing with a chicken without blaming it on the internet. That’s what the internet is for! You’re not above watching a 10-minute supercut of every time Alexis Carrington from Dynasty walked into a room and said “Krystle!” and you shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Because internet? Because you.

Totes

Here lies the body, but not the soul, of “totally”, bastardised beyond recognition from a gorgeous, absolute adverb into an uber-chilled shrug or nod of the head. Not only that, it has a tendency to take other words down with it. “Totes emosh”, “totes cray”: no syllable is safe. All is not lost, however: so omnipresent is “totes” that your grandmother says it to mean “yes”, which means it should be getting measured up for its wooden overcoat pretty soon.

That thing when

A shortcut to starring in your very own scene from Seinfeld, “That thing when” attempts to glitter the very dullest of all the concrete: our everyday lives. “That thing when your five-year-old sees Donald Trump on the TV and says he looks like a walnut whip.” “That thing when a girl hits on you in the gym, but you’re married to the weights and gotta say no.” It’s easy to see why it’s popular – “that thing when you sit staring into your phone for hours at a time praying for something, anything, to happen until finally you just make something up” doesn’t quite cut it.

Amaze, or awesomesauce

Awesomesauce may sound like a ketchup business started by the dullest, most bored and married of your friends, but it’s actually a cutesy way of saying something is great, that you like it. It’s an uncomfortably long hug from an overfamiliar stranger, or a double thumbs up from your manager on a team-building day, at the exact moment you decide you never want to join in. “Amaze” is the same, but has wider, more enthusiastic eyes, which it rolls very hard at you when you’re not looking.

Sorry not sorry

This is the battlecry of the wilfully unapologetic, who see themselves as edgy mavericks while they go about their daily business dropping truth bombs (being rude), taking no prisoners (being rude again) and making baristas’, waiters’ and shop assistants’ lives a misery because they’re too important to be polite.

School night

If you wear an itchy uniform, have chemistry in the morning and your alarm clock is a parent, then fine. If you’re kidulting through your 30s and don’t want to stay out for another drink, just say you’re tired: everybody else is, too. But also: live a little, go to work hungover. Again, everybody else is.

Man crush

This is alpha masculinity’s rare nod to homosexuality, which might come after watching a Ryan Gosling film, realising how cool he is and kind of wanting to be him and marry him all at the same time. Still, it’s better than “no homo”, I guess.

Methinks

Words you love are dying all over the place, yet this centuries-old signaller of faux-intelligence and an incoming garbage opinion prevails. Used by people who want to come across as clever, authoritative or interesting, but actually sound argumentative and pretentious. And old. “I’ve used this one for years,” Dent admits. Awkward.

The Boy

This sobriquet for the man of your dreams would be charming if he were the lead in a romantic novel. It tends to lose its lustre quite quickly when it becomes clear he’s a crashing, bumbling bore who can’t tuck his shirt into his pants, misses the bowl when he uses the loo, and forgets your birthday every other year. The trouble with The Boy is that he’s mythical. In reality, he’s all grown up; he’s just A Man.

Banter

The moth-eaten cape of respectability afforded to demeaning words, teasing, bullying or harassment. Banter is a secret handshake that permits you to say just about anything you want and nobody can get offended. Anyone who doesn’t fall into line is just being a buzzkill, mate – they’re not even worthy of your bantz. If banter had a face, you would never tire of punching it.

Food baby

Pain is pleasure’s natural pudding, and your eager forays into “nom nom” and #foodporn territory can result in only one thing: a food baby. Parents-to-be proudly pat their distended midriff like nobody ever ate before, but unless that burger is going to somehow pop out of you and demand both your attention and the entire contents of your bank account for the next 18 years (more like 40, who are we kidding?), then it’s not a baby, baby.

I can’t even

Pity the poor “I can’t even” crew – continually presented with situations that render them dumbstruck, able only to react with hands clamped to their face and a wide-eyed stare. Nothing trumps “I can’t even”; not “outraged”, “disgusted” or “horrified”. Once you can’t even, you can’t anything – you’re unmatchable.

Sleeps

“Just two more sleeps until my birthday,” Timmy says as you tuck the covers in tight. There’d be no problem were Timmy a freckly youngster in cartoon pyjamas. Timmy, however, is a middle manager in his 30s and, predictably, his birthday is set to last a whole week, because these things always do. But this isn’t just infantilisation, according to David Crystal, it’s a very old English usage, proving that basicness is one genetic trait we can’t breed out.

Parentals

The disturbingly cold trend for describing your mum and dad as a pair of androids isn’t actually as space age as you might think; this usage was recorded by the OED in the 16th century. “Mothership”, however, when talking about your dear old mum, is newer, but still unacceptable. If she knew you’d said that, she’d be bundling you into an escape pod and shooting you right out into space.

All the feels

Anger, joy, love, pain, misery, shock, excitement: they’re all present and correct, but in between the nerve endings and the mouth, or the typing fingers, they become a rush of something conveniently indefinable. “The feels” is almost an embarrassment, as if you can’t believe something is making you emotional, so you explain it away as “the feels” and hope it will pass. The feels can strike at any time: looking at a baby polar bear, mourning a dead relative or reading about Aleppo – as long as you’ve got your feels handy, there’s no need to, well, say how you actually feel. On the internet, the fact you’re feeling something is usually enough.

#blessed

“I want the good things in my life to look like a happy accident and I also have an overwhelming desire for you to envy me. If we were next-door neighbours, I’d own everything you do, only one price point up.”

Hubby

Most husbands have names – John, Dave, Benoît, even – but if someone really wants you to know they have one, that dude will be known only as “Hubby”. It’s used by those recently wed and bizarrely anxious to show they’re settled and sorted. First recorded in 1600, in 2017 “Hubby” is wrapped in “I have one, you don’t” smugness, a fast-forward to the kind of cosy resentment only 20 years of marriage can bring you. Listen carefully, and you can almost hear Hubby’s slippers shuffling towards you – even though he’s only 29.

Lit

“Pretentious maybe, but quite poetic,” Susie Dent says, “and another move on for lit and its meaning of drunk or high.” Yep, it’s brilliantly expressive when used by cool teens describing the illegal rave they’re at, and definitely works when you’re talking about Beyoncé’s post-Grammys party packed with A-listers. But your dreary barbecue or gathering of thirtysomethings in a conservatory with a leaky roof? Lit it most certainly is not. Bring accelerant.

Cheeky

Struggling very hard to come out the other side of a huge identity crisis in recent years, is the adjective “cheeky”. It belongs to impudent young rapscallions in the playground, buttocks, Carry On movies. It should not be a conspiratorial wink while you enjoy a gin and tonic, a holiday, a trip to the shops, getting up to something illegal in a cubicle or eating some bloody chicken.

Goals

Envy masquerading as ambition can be quite the driver when it comes to careers, travel or even a “squad” – a bunch of celebrity mates you covet. But when your “goals” relate to a stranger’s bacon sandwich, it might be time to think bigger. Going to the supermarket is not “grocery goals”. Come on.

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.

Some politicians agree that marriage under 18 should be banned.

Some critics say field tests should be banned because they are the first step down a slippery slope toward full-scale solar geoengineering.

Некоторые критики говорят, что полевые испытания должны быть запрещены, потому что они являются первым шагом вниз по скользкому склону в сторону полномасштабной солнечной геоинженерии.

This means deciding which autonomous weapons systems should be banned internationally.

Первой задачей становится необходимость определить, какие автономные системы вооружений следует запретить на международном уровне.

73% say that books and movies which offend religion should be banned.

В то же время 12,7% опрошенных считают, что следует запретить книги и фильмы, которые содержат нападки на религию.

Its production and use should be banned worldwide.

I honestly think they should be banned.

Therefore, liquor should be banned.

He has also said smartphones should be banned from the family dinner table and children should not have computers in their rooms.

Он также сказал, что смартфоны должны быть запрещены во время семейных ужинов, а в комнатах детей не должно быть компьютеров.

Unauthorized commercial breeding of cats and dogs should be banned, as well as selling them in shops and markets.

Несанкционированное коммерческое разведение кошек и собак должно быть запрещено, также как и продажа их в магазинах и на рынках.

Some people say that dangerous sports should be banned.

If these marches are prohibited to the patriots, then they should be banned to the liberals.

Nuclear testing is a threat to our search for common security and to the environment, and should be banned.

Ядерные испытания представляют угрозу нашим поискам общей безопасности, а также окружающей среде и должны быть запрещены.

We believe, nevertheless, that all religions and churches should be banned.

Heading the ball in soccer should be banned.

Depleted uranium weapons should be banned, and States with stockpiles of them should be required to destroy them immediately.

Оружие, содержащее истощенный уран, следует запретить, а государства, имеющие их запасы, должны немедленно уничтожить это оружие.

That is, the cooperation of the Taliban, who came to power, with extremist groups should be banned and stopped.

То есть сотрудничество талибов, пришедших к власти, с экстремистскими группировками должно быть запрещено и прекращено.

The Republican party is a criminal organization that should be banned.

Xi jinping said that nuclear weapons in the world should be banned and destroyed.

Си Цзиньпин заявил, что ядерное оружие в мире следует запретить и уничтожить.

Others think it should be banned completely.

Plastic surgery should be banned in anyone over thirty.

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

Результатов: 861. Точных совпадений: 861. Затраченное время: 113 мс

Documents

Корпоративные решения

Спряжение

Синонимы

Корректор

Справка и о нас

Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900

Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

The word ‘N-Word’ is racist and should be banned immediately say far-left censors who control the media. Some are even calling for the banning and deletion of the letter N from the English alphabet altogether as it now completely implies a certain Latin word for ‘black’. Another far left-wing group are calling for the ban of the Latin language completely, as it is deemed dangerous and divisively ‘racist’.

“The phrase ‘N-Word’ is racist through and through, because it refers directly to a very bad word derived from Latin that simply and innocently describes the colour black. In our closed communistic, intolerant tyrannical echo-chamber Marxist totalitarian dictatorship, we cannot have words describing a colour, because we’re niggly about things like that. We are also looking at the Spanish word for black, this is utterly racist, and we are considering putting the Spanish language as a whole on the black list as well,” Julian Soylatte, official fact-checker controller for all social media screamed on his Twitter censor page.

It’s not only the ‘N-Word’ phrase that is getting banned, but any image or mention of a monkey on the internet will also be banned by next week. What’s wrong with monkeys you might ask? This we cannot dare to address on here, but as an innocent animal that exists in the animal kingdom amongst many animals, there should be no mention of these things that swing in trees and are rather partial to bananas.

“Bananas are racist too, because they infer they are eaten by monkeys, so we will look into banning bananas as well,” Soylatte added.

Where will all this niggardly penurious virtue signalling censorious Marxist nonsense end?